Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
ranking member Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., has called on
the DHS to implement recommendations in the GAO report
to keep its computer infrastructure secure.
“How can the department possibly protect the nation’s
critical cyber-structure if it cannot keep its own
house in order?” asked Lieberman, who requested the
report, as well as an earlier report released by GAO
in May critical of the department’s progress in
protecting the national cyber-infrastructure and
citing underlying management problems.
“More than two years after the department was formed,
it should have a better grasp on protecting its own
systems and information,” he said.
The senator’s office also recounted a recommendation
from the DHS inspector general to install backup
systems in case the department’s computer functions
fail.
The most recent GAO report noted DHS has yet to
complete risk assessments of its systems, information
system security plans, testing and evaluation of its
security controls, remedial action plans, plans for
continuity of computer operations should a breach occur,
and a systems inventory, noted a statement from
Lieberman’s office.
